


Valence

by CaveSalamander



Category: Scooby Doo - All Media Types, Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated (TV 2010)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-05-01
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2017-12-10 02:16:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/780619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaveSalamander/pseuds/CaveSalamander
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post season 2. In the new universe, Mystery Incorporated left Crystal Cove for mysteries and adventure without leaving their loved ones so much as a single note. Marcie isn't about to be forgotten so easily...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



"And when was the last time you saw Miss Dinkley?" The officer asking the question was a short, rather plump woman, reading from a clipboard she had in her hands. With each answer Marcie gave, she scribbled something down.

Marcie rubbed the tears from her eyes and swallowed before speaking. "The day before yesterday. I'd visited her house so we could work on our project for the Tri-State Olympiad of science." Before she could continue, the officer broke in with another question.

"Was there anything unusual going on? Did she mention anyone new?"

"Yes!" she replied, mildly exasperated. She hardly needed the prompting. "She was going on about something strange that had happened to her and her other friends. She... I tried to get her to focus on the project, but-"

The officer, Jen, according to the nametag she wore, interrupted again with another question, "What did she say was going on?"

"I was getting to that," Marcie said, struggling not to snap at the officer. "She wasn't making much sense though. It was so unlike her! She mentioned something about having to tell the gang, and Schrodingers Cat."

"Gang activity?" Jen broke in, her eyes widening. "Your friend was involved with a gang?"

Marcie wrung her hands in frustration. "No! If you would just listen... The gang, that's what she called her friends. The other three who went missing." Before the obvious question could come again, she plowed on. "They left somewhere, or something happened to them! Are you going to keep asking stupid, pointless questions, or are you going to do something about it? The last thing I knew, she went to go talk to them, and it's got 'everything' to do with the concept of multiple universes."

"Calm down, girl," the police woman reprimanded, lowering her clipboard, a stern expression punctuating her words. "You really shouldn't yell at an officer of the law like that. I'll let it slide though, since you're so worried about your friend."

Marcie opened her mouth to correct the last statement, but closed it again with a sigh. It would only bring up more questions, and she didn't have the patience to deal with that any longer. She'd hoped the law could help her, but she'd been talked in circles, asked the same questions fifteen times by fifteen different people. At least Jen bothered to write them down. "Yes, ma'am. May I go. That's all I know."

Jen's expression softened. "Sure thing, dear. It's not often we get mysterious things going on in Crystal Cove. We'll get to the bottom of it though."

With a curt nod, Marcie walked stiff-backed from the room.

About thirty minutes later, she collapsed onto her bed, closing her eyes to rethink things. Velma had seemed off the whole time. Marcie spun over in her bed, burrowing her face into the pillow. She' just assumed that the excitement had been over some sudden insight. It wasn't the first time such a thing had happened, and if Marcie could help it, it wouldn't be the last either. As sudden and jarring as Velma's bursts of intuition were, Marcie loved the way her eyes lit up when the realization hit, and even more so when the explanation came hours later. _That’s my girl._

Pulling herself out of her reverie, she put her mind back to the problem at hand. She had an idea, of course, but surely it was impossible...

* * *

The pink sun of morning rose, breaking through the window into Marcie's room. She lay sprawled on her bed fast asleep, her computer humming softly as the idle image bounced from one side of the screen to the other. As the light hit her eyes, she shifted, bumping the book she'd been using as a mousepad, and the screen lit up. At least five tabs listed articles written about various types of alternate realities, another two showed the local news articles that had been posted about the four missing kids.

The open tab showed Marcie's e-mail outbox. Most of the e-mails were to Velma, many of the more recent ones concerning the upcoming science event, and research on soil minerals. The latest one had been sent to Velma as well, the topic reading, _Where are you?_

"You've got mail!" the computer chimed loudly. The empty inbox icon filled to indicate the new message. At the sound, Marcie jolted awake, and pushed herself up to her hands, momentarily glad she'd set her sound so high before she'd drifted off.

"Velma?"

To her disappointment, it was spam. _Mister E. knows what you are looking for!_  the e-mail proclaimed. Blearily, Marcie grabbed for her mouse. "Don't even bother," she muttered. "Like that would fool me." How it had managed to slip through her spam filters, she didn't know.

The mouse slipped off the book as she went to click, and she opened the e-mail with a grunt of irritation. She did _not_ feel like dealing with a virus right now. Not on top of everything else.

"Miss Fleach," a voice boomed tinnily. Marcie flinched at the blaring speakers and quickly turned it down. "I hope this message finds you well?"

"How did you know my name?" Marcie asked, mostly to herself, more frustrated than curious. This was an elaborate spam, that's for sure. A personalized video? She'd have to run a virus scan once she got it to shut up.

"I understand that you are worried about Miss Dinkley."

Marcie's blood ran cold at the mention of Velma. What did this stranger in the video know about her?

"I implore you not to worry. She and her friends are quite well. As you know, if I may judge by your search records, you are at least marginally aware of the odd circumstances of their sudden change in behavior? What might have driven them to unite and leave Crystal Cove?"

Her research had indeed turned up interesting results. She'd spent the past hours absorbing the theoretical information great scientists collected on theories of alternate realities, parallel universes, and more. Most of it seemed more like science fiction than reality, but it had been her only lead. 

"I assure you, the five of them are quite alright. They have a higher calling that could not be fulfilled by remaining in the meticulously non-mysterious municipality that is your tiny town."

She could tell where the scrawny man in the video was going with this. _They_ have a higher calling, _her_ town.

"Don't bother to look for them. They have import-"

"No." The word of defiance is out of Marcie's mouth, louder than she thought it would be. Her mind was already made up. If this man didn't want her to go after Velma, he'd sent her the message in error. She hit print screen and pulled up Google as the man continued speaking in the background.

"-ant business to attend to elsewhere. They have each other, and that's all they've ever needed. There have, of course, been timelines where others have attempted to tag along."

Marcie loaded the image into the reverse image search. It was a longshot, but if she could find a background that resembled the one in the video, she might have a chance.

"The worst of course, was a servant of the Evil One masquerading as a harmless relation to Scooby."

Nothing close enough turned up, and she sighed, rubbing her eyes. For a second, she'd hoped she had a chance. There was something about him though. She felt like she'd seen him before.

"Like I said, don't bother trying to find them. It's not worth wasting your time or theirs."

Marcie closed out of the e-mail. What did he know about what, or who, was worth her time. He had no idea what Velma meant to her. What it had been like to finally find someone who could approach her wavelength. Like she would give up just because some old coot told her they didn't need her. What did he know?

She slammed shut one of the books she'd fallen asleep reading. _The Incomplete Encyclopedia on Alternate Universes and Inter-dimensional Travel by Harlan Ellison._  It had seemed so promising with the title, but the contents were utter garbage. It was science fantasy at best, like most of what she found. To think he'd published it as theoretical physics. Who did he think he was?

Propelling herself back onto her pillow with a sigh, Marcie wished she could show Velma the evidence she'd gathered. It wasn't much, but V always seemed to know how to piece the clues together. She'd always thought the two of them worked great as a team, but maybe she was never as useful as she'd thought. After all, Marcie was a mess, while Velma had ran off with her other friends without so much as leaving a message.

Marcie woke up several hours later feeling much better, but rather disoriented from sleeping all day. The wonderful smell of smoked bacon set her stomach rumbling, and she looked over to see that her father left her a platter full of food. Hungry since she'd skipped breakfast and lunch, she promptly dug in. 

The food vastly improved her outlook, and with her plate on her lap, she scooted back towards her laptop. Hunting down a match for a screenshot had been a decent start, but she mentally kicked herself for that being all she'd done immediately following the electronic trail. She investigated the e-mail more, not sure if she was relieved or not that it was just a dream. He'd been clever, hiding the trail. The return e-mail led to a throwaway account and also a dead end. Even hunting down the IP led to an anonymous proxy server.

The video hadn't given her much more than a face and a voice, both of which were useless to her until she had something to compare them with, and the e-mail itself even less. Or hopefully less. She set a virus scan running while finished eating.

No longer suffering for a lack of sleep or food, Marcie's mind whirled with ways she could track down Velma and the other missing kids. If Velma had taught her anything, there was much more to figuring things out than just using books and the internet. If the four of them had left town, she wouldn't find them by sitting around! 

Marcie hopped up out of bed, and dashed to her closet. Velma chose mineral erosion for this year's science project, but Marcie's idea had been more unique, if less practical. In her spare time, and with leftover materials from her father's booming amusement park, Marcie managed to design a new sort of gas reminiscent of helium yet lighter even than hydrogen. She pulled out the heavy tank she kept it stored in, and set it by her bed along with the air bladders she'd bought last week to test it.

She already had a plan forming even as she heard her father calling her down for dinner. Had she really slept that far into the day? It's a good thing summer break started a week ago, that's for sure. Sliding the supplies under her bed, she left for dinner.


	2. Chapter 2

Marcie picked at her food, torn between excitement pushing aside her appetite and wanting to finish eating as quickly as possible.

"Darling?" Her father asked, noticing her reticence, "are you feeling well? You slept all day today, and you've hardly touched your meatloaf."

Setting down her fork, she looked up at her dad and nodded. "V's been missing."

"I read about that in the papers this morning. Her and a few other kids left in the middle of the night, is what I read. You two were close, weren't you?" He looked to his daughter expectantly, a bite of meatloaf halfway to his mouth.

"Yeah. We were really close." Marcie tried to add that yes, they were really close. Together, in fact, until Velma had disappeared without a word. Her words caught in her throat instead, and she reached for the glass of orange juice.

"I'm sure the police will find them, whether they left of their own choice or not. That's what they're for, right?"

"They don't know what they're doing. There's never been something like this happen in Crystal Cove." She stabbed her meatloaf again and shoved a bite in her mouth.

"I'm sure she'll turn up, or call. She's a smart girl just like you. Besides, she wouldn't forget about the Science Olympiad!" Her dad smiled brightly, hoping his words would reassure his beloved daughter.

Marcie acknowledged his attempt to cheer her up with an equally successful attempt at a smile. She wished she could believe it, but it'd already been three days with no word. The bite went down rough, Marcie's throat tight with the thought that Velma might have actually left her behind on purpose. 

Realizing he’d failed to lighten the mood, Mr. Fleach's smile faltered, but he kept on. "What is it you two are studying again? When I dropped off the food, it looked like you were looking up time travel or something." 

"Oh, that. Yeah, V was talking about how schrodinger's cat was the answer to some problem she was plagued with, so I grabbed a few books from the library hoping something would turn up."

"Did you find anything interesting?"

"Interesting, yes. Helpful, no. It's useless trying to find out why she left without any further information! I still have no idea why she left, or if it's anything more than tangentially related to her problem." Marcie picked at her food again, doing her best to keep her voice level and not shaky. Talking about it with her father made it seem that much more real. With the problems laid out before her, they seemed suddenly insurmountable.

He reached a hand out and patted Marcie's. "It's okay, darling. You'll see your friend again, she'll be b-"

At the word 'friend,' Marcie had yanked her hand out from under her dad's as though he'd burned her. "She's not-" Marcie stopped herself mid sentence, "coming back, I think. I have to go after her."

"Marcie, do you even know where she's going? Don't you need some sort of idea of where to look?"

"Don't take that reproachful tone with me, father! I'm practically an adult now, and I know what I'd be getting into by leaving."

Marcie's outburst took her dad by surprise. He looked taken aback, then downcast. "I know. I know you're almost an adult, and you're so much smarter than I, or many of the adults I know. You... You remind me so much of your mother, more every day."

"I'm not hungry," Marcie said flatly, standing up and jolting the table in her haste. She settled her juice before it sloshed too much, and walked away.

"Marcie, stop. I know full well you can handle yourself. For God's sake, you went to China all by yourself, and even organized it by your own initiative." Mr. Fleach stood up and took a couple steps towards her as he spoke.

Marcie stopped and turned back, though she wouldn't look him in the eyes.

"You are the most responsible and intelligent young woman I have ever known and I know you can do anything you put your mind to. Despite all that, you're still my daughter, and I know we've never really connected like you did with your mom, but I have always loved you and I will always worry about you going off on your own whether you're seventeen or seventy." Her dad didn't move to hold her back from leaving, but stood at the table with both hands clasped around the top of the chair back.

The short speech left Marcie unsure of what to say. She opened her mouth to thank him, planning to then walk off and continue packing, but instead she said, "She's my girlfriend."

"What?"

"I thought I should tell you why I need to go after her."

"She's... What now? I don't understand."

Marcie could feel her heart racing in her chest, though she did her best to maintain her composure. She couldn't completely hide her tension though, and she wrapped her arms around herself, balling her hands into fists. "We're more than friends. I love her." What wasn't there to understand? 

"So, you and Miss Dinkley were... Together?"

She could feel her nails digging into her palm, and she hated not knowing what that tone in her father's voice was. "A-plus, dad. You've got it. Gold star. You've got a homosexual daughter who wants to chase her girlfriend out somewhere in the real world because she has no idea why said girlfriend left without a single word." Marcie was just scrambling to fill the space with words. She feared what he'd say if she gave him time to speak again. She sucked in a breath and before he could so much as open his mouth, she turned to leave again. "I'm going to keep packing." Without waiting for a reply, she darted into the hallway and back to her room.

Once there, she shut the door behind her and leaned on it for support. That hadn't been how she'd meant to come out to her father. She'd never exactly planned it out, but if she had, that wouldn't have been it. Not right after he'd been trying to be supportive of her adulthood. She covered her face with one hand while she flipped the lock with the other. Who knew if he'd let her leave now.

She had to pack quickly, before he could try to stop her. In a rush, she pulled out her case she'd brought to China with her and emptied as much her dresser into it as she could cram in. About fifteen minutes of frenzied packing later, Marcie realized her dad didn't seem to plan on following her, or saying anything at all. She sat on her bed and listened for the sound of her father's moving about the house. He'd always been so old fashioned; it'd taken Marcie several months of hounding to convince her dad to adopt a credit card swiper. In this day and age! 

With his attitude towards modern technology so lacking, Marcie had a feeling he'd share similar attitudes towards homosexuality. He'd never said anything in particular about it, but she'd never so much as dropped hints before.

Holding her shoddily packed bag, and hearing no sign of retaliation from her father, Marcie sat back on her bed and heaved a sigh. She'd have to leave her room soon enough, but she wasn't sure she could face her father, especially not if he decided she no longer existed. Why else hadn't he come to say anything?

Marcie stared at her shoes over by the door and thought back to the conversation. She wished she'd let him say something at least. Not knowing was almost worse, what with her imagination coming up with worst-case scenarios. He was right about one thing, at least. She needed some idea of where to go first. Nothing with Mister E. turned up useful information, despite her attempts at tracking him down, and if Shrodinger really had anything to do with it, his cat was still firmly in its bag.

A light knocking broke into her thoughts and she jumped violently to her feet, hitting her elbow on the corner of her four poster bed. "Yeah?" She hated the quaver in her voice, but between her heart in her throat and her arm tingling from hitting her funny bone (a misnomer on both counts) she couldn't really help it.

"I, erm... have something for you." 

Whatever Marcie had been expecting him to say, it wasn't that. She opened her door a crack, peering out warily. In his hands was a familiar book, though it looked much older than the copy that was sitting on her bed. " _The Incomplete Encyclopedia on Alternate Universes and Inter-dimensional Travel by Harlin Ellison?_ " she read.

Her father nodded, then wiped a bit of the dust off. "I saw you had a copy from the library, and remembered it from your mother's old book collection."

Marcie took the book cautiously, unsure why he was doing this. "I thought you never went into her study."

"I used to spend quite a lot of time in there, you know. I never understood what caught her interest so, but when she talked about things she had a passion for... that hardly seemed to matter." His hand slid along the cover as his daughter pulled it from him and into her arms. He seemed reluctant to let it go.

Marcie finally worked up the courage to look her father in the eyes. To her surprise, tears threatened to slide down his cheeks. "Father, why talk about her now? Why give me this?" How many times had she been shut down when trying to ask about her. About where she left to and why, or even just who she was.

"A part of me wishes I could have looked for her. When she disappeared, I was devastated. I wanted to drop everything to find her but I had an amusement park to run... And a rambunctious seven year old to take care of." Mr. Fleach reached up and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"So you're alright with me going after her?"

"No. But you are old enough to make your own decisions."

"And what about us being together?" 

"I'm not really sure about all that." He looked down and hesitated, seeming to struggle with the right words. "But she was important to you, and you're important to me." 

Marcie could feel her heart beating in her throat and she nodded once. He'd never said anything about homosexuality around her before and he wasn't terribly religious, but embracing new things had never been a specialty of his. It wasn't the open arms welcoming best scenario she'd hoped for, but at least he wasn't angry. "She _is_  important to me, and I really do need to get going. The longer I wait, the further away she gets." 

Her dad didn't move out of the doorway right away, and Marcie fidgeted uncomfortably, wondering what more there was for him to say. "Do you even have any idea where you're going?"

She recognized the tone in his voice: the near-panic doubtfulness he'd had just before she'd hopped on an airplane for the first time ready to head to the other side of the planet. This was familiar territory at least. "There's only one big road out of Crystal Cove and a few places I need to stop by before I really head out," she explained, turning back to pick up her bags.

"You can't leave now!" He gestured to the window of her bedroom, where the sky already darkened.

Marcie glanced out the window, her expression betraying desperation. "Let me prepare tonight at least. I slept all day and I'm not tired yet."

Mr. Fleach looked dubiously at the suitcase she seemed to be expecting to bring with her to simply run errands. Marcie caught his glance and hastily set her bag back down. "Is anywhere even going to be open now?" he asked, his brows furrowing.

"Just because you go out after dark doesn't mean nobody else does," Marcie replied with a shrug. "The supermarket stays open until midnight, even on the weekdays and I need nonperishables."

Finding no other excuse to keep her back, Marcie's dad stepped aside, letting her slip by him.

* * *

She felt bad about lying to her dad as she climbed through the window to sneak back into her room, but three whole days already passed since she'd heard from Velma. She wasn't about to waste any more time sitting around.

Her things were just where she'd left them, and she sighed in relief and moved quietly to pack. Her father would understand, she knew.

Between the suitcase and the super-helium supplies, Marcie's arms were nearly too full to clamber out her window, but she was thankful she chose a room on the first floor. Once safely outside and hidden in the shrubs in the sideyard, she looped one of the air bladders around her bag and gave it just enough gas for it to be nearly weightless. 

She allowed herself a satisfied smirk at her genius and took off with her luggage in tow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always struggle knowing how to end chapters. Almost all of this has been done for a few weeks now, but the last few paragraphs took forever.


	3. Chapter 3

The fence bordering the amusement park proved to be little hassle for Marcie to negotiate, even with all her baggage. This was not the first time she'd entered the park after hours, though as she looked up at the shadows of the coaster tracks looming in the sky, she knew it might be the last. Not one to dwell on such sentimentalities, she ducked under one of the "DO NOT ENTER" signs.

Marcie stopped short before the locked door of a small supply shed and pulled out one of the park's spare skeleton keys her father had 'lost' some years back and never bothered changing the locks over. Inside, Marcie found the park's costume supply.

With a hefty tug and a grunt, she pulled one of the larger ones from the pile. The weight of it made her almost feel bad for the kid who was stuck wearing it for hours at a time, though she didn't spare them another thought as she investigated further.

The hideous face of the beast leered blankly up at her once she got the tangled mats of mane off its face. The rest costume was huge, with enough space inside to pack the air bladders, and herself comfortably. Whoever regularly wore this costume likely stood at least a foot taller than Marcie herself. The beast even came with its own pair of monstrous wings, useful for navigation.

Marcie carefully fitted the super-helium bladders and the air tank into the beast, and tested her air control mechanism. The super-helium hissed softly as it eased into one of the bladders. As she watched the headless lion-like body drift vaguely upwards, she heard something behind her.

She spun around, one hand firmly tethering the disguise by its scorpion tail, the other ready to fend off whoever was skulking around in her father's park after hours.

Only her own shadow stood there, long in the amber light from the inside of the shed. She squinted over her yellow-paned computer glasses, watching for any sign of movement. Her heart slowed, and she began to wonder if she'd heard the sound at all. 

Marcie turned back to her work, pulling it down to check for leaks. The super-helium behaved much like regular helium, though that in itself was a misnomer. The gas did not simply float upwards as most lighter gasses did; Rather it seemed to have an incredibly powerful neutral buoyancy, the exact physics of which Marcie didn't have the time to explore properly.

She moved with a renewed sense of urgency, unable to shake the feeling of being watched. With the only light around directly over her and her work, she felt exposed and vulnerable.

Marcie didn't like how the shadows from the shed's light shifted with every little motion, and she flinched twice as a moth hit the lamp with a soft 'thap'. The sooner she could leave, the better. She locked the shed, glad to be safely concealed in the dark once more.

Marcie eased herself into the lion-like body, and when she pulled on the head, her transformation into the manticore was complete. She laughed a little to herself, and heard the strange echo as the voice disruptor did its work. A manticore, a man-eating monster of Persian origins.

'Creepy Spooky Terror Land' might not fit the sunny theme of the rest of the town, but the vast array of frightening attractions managed to draw crowds. With one last look around her, she snatched up her luggage and leapt into the air. 

* * *

The first two hours of flight were rough. Flapping alone proved a difficult task to master, let alone navigating, but Marcie was nothing if not quick to learn. It helped to stay away from the trees where unexpected gusts of wind didn't threaten to buffet her into the branches.

Marcie followed the main road from on high, resting her arms as the wind carried her. The costume was a bit toasty in the early summer heat, and she almost wished she had a car to drive. Unfortunately, she'd never needed one in the small city of Crystal Cove, and almost nothing could have convinced her to wait for a bus out of town or to be stuck on the rigid path of the railroad. No, flying gave her the freedom she needed, and without extra expenses. It was fast too, she noted, watching the headlights below fall behind as she skipped the winding curves they were forced to take.

The night dragged on, and she eventually angled her wings towards the next patch of lights on the horizon. The city was fairly small, and as stealthily as she could, Marcie dropped down behind the first lit up coffee shop. Unfortunately, the black cover of night already was lessening, and she crouched in the shadows of the alleyway, listening intently.

"Dude, did you see that?" 

"Wait, you saw it too? Where did it go?"

"What was it?"

"Some sorta bird, I think."

"Nah, too big to be a bird!"

Marcie held her breath as the voices became clearer, not that it would have done much good. Two figures appeared in the entrance of the alley and froze, staring straight at her.

The huge, glowing eyes blinked once, as Marcie fumbled with the switch to turn them off. From the stranger's reactions, she knew the jig was up. She could see they were both boys, each a few years older than her. Judging by their outfits, Marcie guessed they were in the local school's track team.

One of them grabbed the other's arm and hissed, "That's not a bird."

The reply from the other boy dripped with sarcasm, "No kidding?"

"No kidding," Marcie agreed, the voice emanating from the Manticore a low and growling distorted echo of her own words.

It seemed that was too much for the two, and with a shout of terror, they turned and sprinted away. Marcie struggled not to laugh as she heard their frantic footsteps receding very quickly into the distance. She pulled herself out of the beast, holding the head under one arm as she fixed up her yellow and red hair clips.

Marcie quickly took stock of the alley, thankful it only had the one entrance. Nobody would be using it as a thoroughfare. She tucked the now-deflated manticore close to the side of the alley, and pulled a scrap of cardboard over it for a bit of camouflage.

 With that, she adjusted her socks, grabbed her laptop bag from the suitcase and strode out of the alley.

To her disappointment, the sign over the door showed the coffee shop remained closed. Marcie peeked in through the glass to see three workers inside busily readying the store.

The youngest, a boy of about sixteen, noticed her and laughed in exasperation, gesturing towards her. Another one looked up from sliding a tray of baked goods into the display cabinet and stood up. She looked to be in her upper fourties and had a managerial look about her. She gestured towards the door and said something. The boy nodded, and darted to the door to let Marcie in.

"Already we have customers this morning! Are you trying to beat our newfound rush?" he asked, running a hand through his curly, black hair.

"No," Marcie answered, confused. "I'm just traveling through. What rush?"

"Oh, some kids passed through a couple days ago, and cleaned out the Sugarbugar. We're the next best place in town for breakfast and coffee, so their morning rush has been coming here." He offered her a menu he withdrew from his apron pocket and shrugged. "Food gets delivered tomorrow, so things'll be back to normal then, if you're interested in sticking around a bit."

Marcie took the menu, doing her best to feign idle curiosity. "Kids passed through? Were they on a field trip?"

The boy laughed, though cut it short when Marcie raised an eyebrow at him. "No, no... I really ought not to be calling them kids. They were about our age, and there were only four of 'em."

Bingo. Marcie hid her triumphant smile behind the menu, though she wasn't reading it one bit. "Four kids cleaned out an entire business, hmm?" she asked, her tone doubtful.

Around the side of the menu, Marcie could see the boy shrug, "Well, them and their dog. I think the one slouchy guy is a professional eater or something. Him and the dog must have black holes in their stomachs."

"That would be a physical impossibility. A black hole residing within a human's gut would quickly consume them. Not to mention the black hole itself would likely weigh in at several thousand pounds, even if it were the size of a pea. The proximity to the black hole would distort space-time itself!" Marcie explained this, an irritated tone in her voice. This was _basic_  theoretical quantum physics.

The boy threw up his hands in mock defense, "Look, lady. I wasn't meaning literally. You sound like the nerdy girl that was with them. She wouldn't stop babbling about alternate universes."

Any intelligent reply Marcie might have came up with died in her throat at the mention of Velma. "Whatever," she snapped, thrusting the menu back at him. "I want a coffee please."

“Are you sure you just want a drink? Our lemon scones are delicious!"

“I’ll pass.” The place smelled great, but Marcie's gluten allergy would cause some discomfort down the road. 

He took the menu and seemed to notice some smell in the air. "Is someone grilling this early? I smell hot dogs."

"No." Marcie answered flatly, narrowing her eyes at him over her yellow glasses. This was not a conversation she wanted to get into right now. Not that she would have trouble fielding questions about her peculiar scent, as one of her father's strange methods of conserving money (particularly over the winter months when the amusement park had much less traffic) involved bathing in water recycled from the park's food stands. 

He shrugged, indifferent to her answer. “I’ll have your breakfast right out, miss.”

Marcie took her seat by the corner, and set her laptop down on the table. This, of course, was her real reason for stopping off at a coffee shop. She rapped her fingers impatiently on the table as her computer hummed into life. Usually she lived on her computer enough that turning it off after each use was far too much of a hassle, but for the trip, this would better conserve battery power between stops.

Thankful for the wi-fi, Marcie logged onto her e-mail. She had just long enough to realize that two messages sat in her inbox before the boy appeared at her table with the requested drink. Her fingers felt numb as she turned to face him, forcing a smile. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

She returned to her messages, the smile fading quickly. A cursory glance showed that neither e-mail listed Velma as the sender. The flash of hope left her as quickly as it had come, and Marcie held back a sigh of disappointment, so as not to alert the others in the shop.

A second look revealed that not all hope was lost. The first message from her father surprised Marcie only in that her father had actually thought to use the e-mail service to contact her. She ignored it for now, instead focusing on the other one. The mysterious Mr. E apparently deemed her worth another e-mail.

The uncharacteristically laconic subject line read, “Go back home.” Marcie pulled her headphones out and stuck them over her ears, the coffee forgotten. If Mr. E sent another video, Marcie hardly wanted to broadcast as much to the entire store, particularly not now with three new people in the room.

As it turned out, Marcie needn’t have worried. The message only contained text this time around. Despite this, she left the headphones on as she read, hoping it would discourage being interrupted.

_“To the ever vexatious Miss Fleach,_

_I imagine this electronic message will find you snooping about, or shall we say meddling, in business that is not your own. The best I can hope for is that you read this sooner rather than later, though I find it unlikely that there would be many a wireless center some of the nearer outlying towns. Your persistence, though it could be considered admirable, is actually quite irksome on account of you nosing around in business that is not yours. When, I ask, when will you learn that you do not belong? Perhaps I overestimated your intelligence, which quite frankly is not a mistake I am prone to making.”_

Marcie felt her anger rising as she read the message, wondering how he possibly thought sending her messages would remotely convince her to turn back and head home. The e-mail went on, but it was more of the same.

"You’re wanting me to turn back, Mister E," Marcie whispered as she copied the message into a Word document. "You think sending me letters insulting me will make me want to give up and go home."

Marcie knew he had something to do with the disappearance of Velma and her friends, and something wasn’t right about the whole business. Not one of them had contacted home or sent word of their departure and that reeked of foul play. Giving up her search was the last thing she planned to do, and nothing some pompous anon who’s not half as smart as he thinks he is will be able to change that.

She shut her laptop in disgust and took slightly too large gulp of coffee. It was bitter and far too hot, but she downed the rest of it without hesitation. Her stomach growled faintly and she glanced around, hoping the other patrons in the now-crowded coffee shop hadn’t noticed. Maybe she was hungrier than she realized.

To her mild embarrassment, a girl sitting with a friend at the next table seemed to be watching her. Marcie met her gaze evenly, frowning a bit. The girl looked a way, chagrined to have been caught staring, and Marcie returned to her coffee. She knew she’d need more than just pastry bread and caffeine to get her through the coming day, but this at least was a good start. 

She tucked her laptop under her arm and stood up. As if on cue, the server boy darted over to her, expecting payment. After parting with money for the (ridiculously overpriced) coffee, Marcie paused to ask, “Do you happen to know what brought those other kids into town?”

He shrugged. “Passing through as far as I could tell. There are others who could tell you more. I’m pretty busy right now, so I’d better be getting back to work.” With that, he shooed her away, and another early morning patron was quickly seated in her place.

Regretting not thinking of holding the money hostage before getting better answers, Marcie navigated the mass of people back out onto the street. The morning line already reached a bit of the way out of the store and she shook her head in disbelief. She’d never been a morning person, and even now she only was awake because she’d stayed up all night.

Marcie wanted to ask the people in line where she could go for more information, but more than a few of them looked rather disgruntled about having to wait, and none of them yet had their morning coffee. Neither of those observable facts would lead to a desirable output. Instead, she decided she would check up on the manticore costume.

On her way towards the alley, someone tapped her shoulder lightly. “Hey, miss?” the voice asked.

Marcie jumped and turned around sharply to see the girl and her friend from the shop.

“I heard you asking about Mystery Incorporated?” The girl in question was about fifteen, with her light hair up in pigtails. The friend stood a couple inches taller, her clothes and hair all black, glaringly punk in style. The two seemed unlikely friends, but Marcie had seen stranger.

“Yeah? Did you meet them?” she replied, a bit guarded. She could see where the manticore costume was hidden from where she stood and she’d realized she’d done a rather shoddy job of hiding it.

“We did!” the friend replied. Marcie was a bit surprised by how little-girlish her voice was. “Are you a reporter?" 

Marcie stopped herself from shaking her head right away and instead shrugged. “I’m trying to solve a mystery.”

“Ooh, so that’s why you want to find Mystery Incorporated?” The first girl asked.

The friend jumped in, “They can solve any mystery for you, just like they did for us.”

“Finding them would certainly put me much closer to solving my mystery,” Marcie agreed, hoping she wouldn't have to explain her situation in any more detail. "What were they doing here apart from apparently eating half the food in the entire town, anyway?"

"It was only the dog and the cute boy who did most of the eating," the taller girl clarified. "I think they're probably professionals." The last assertion was made with a know-it-all's air, and Marcie may have smiled if not for her impatience.

"Yeah, you think, but if they were professionals, they wouldn't be in some tiny town solving mysteries." The tone in the blonde girl's voice suggested this topic had been dredged up multiple times recently. 

Marcie cut the debate short, cutting in by saying, "I need to catch up with them as soon as possible. Did they mention where they were headed?"

"Well, they left to the North-eastish?" The punk girl glanced to her friend to confirm. "Yeah, it didn't really seem as though they had any destination in particular." 

"Are you sure? I think I heard the short chick talk about college..." She twiddled with her pigtails, trying to remember. "It happened just before the werewolf attacked, remember?"

"A werewolf?" Marcie asked, her voice dripping with skepticism.

"Not a real werewolf, of course."

"Nope! In fact, it was thanks to the Mystery Incorporated that the guy was caught at all! The one with the weird neck scarf set up this trap-" 

"Sam, Lil!" someone new interrupted. Or rather, someone not so new. Marcie recognized the voice, and turned to see one of the track boys from earlier jogging up. He cast an anxious glance down the alley. "Jake and I saw something weird near here when we were out running. Have any of you seen anything strange?"

"No, but listen, she needs to find Mystery Inc, some of her friends are missing!" Pigtails said, looking at Marcie to double check.

Marcie shifted uncomfortably, making a concerted effort not to glance down the alley. Her stomach growled again, drawing the eyes of the other teens. She took the escape route, "Anyone know somewhere I can get proper food?"

* * *

As it turned out, 'Lil' with the pigtails and the runner boy, Caleb, were siblings and also quite hospitable. They insisted Marcie come to their home and eat there, as it wasn't often they had guests. Caleb 'wouldn't take no for an answer', though Marcie was more than happy to get eyes away from the alley and the prospect of free food weakened any polite protests she offered.

Questions along the way were easily deflected back towards Mystery Incorporated, and listening to the other's talk about them. By the time Marcie, Sam, and the two siblings reached their destination, Marcie's chest felt like an iron vice was steadily crushing her. All four of the Mystery Inc. seemed to be perfectly content and happy. Five, if you included the dog who could now apparently talk. (Marcie highly doubted that. A more likely explanation was that his training at the academy involved learning how to 'speak' on command.) 

Over the large breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon (but no toast) Marcie deftly skirted the question of how she'd arrived in the town. "Oh, I just drifted in. I'm surprised nobody saw me come in. People here are up early."

Sam laughed and fiddled with one of her spiked black leather bracelets. "The werewolf kept everyone here up for days with its non-stop howling, so when Mystery Inc showed up and caught him... Well, everyone slept like a baby after that." 

"How long ago was that anyway?" Marcie mumbled between mouthfuls of egg.

"Just a couple days. They left Monday morning. The mayor offered them a place to stay in exchange for everyone being able to sleep again," Caleb answered.

Marcie's eyes brightened at the news. They'd lingered in this town for a while, it seemed. She swallowed, and set her fork down, running calculations in her head. If Mystery Incorporated had only reached this town mid to late Sunday, they must not have left Crystal Cove much before dawn. For whatever delayed their departure, Marcie was grateful.

She shoveled the last few bites of food into her mouth, and washed it down with the last of her milk. "Thanks for your help, but I have to get going. The sooner I can find them, the better."

Lil took the plate, holding it like a waitress. "I hope you find your friends," she said, tilting her head concernedly. "Who did you say you were looking for again?"

"I didn't." Marcie readjusted the striped sock that had slipped down at some point earlier. "I'd say more, but there's someone who isn't wanting me to find them."

This nugget of information brought a gasp from one of them, and three pairs of wide, worried eyes watched her as she stood up and patted down her skirt.

"You have to find your friends as soon as possible!" Lil said, stating the obvious with a huge grin.

Sam nodded, and leaned against a computer desk shoved into the corner and piled high with papers and torn envelopes. The ancient box monitor hummed to life at the touch of the mouse. "You have to let us know when you find them, alright? So we know you're okay."

"Really?" Marcie's genuine surprise left both girls looking rather insulted.

"Yeah. Of course," Caleb replied, frowning. "You're not that much older than us, you know, and you're off on a real adventure. With a real bad guy."

"Real danger too," added Lil, suddenly serious again.

Marcie wasn't entirely sure how to respond. It's not like she was entirely friendless at home, but she wasn't terribly popular, and occasionally coming to school smelling like day-old hot dogs hardly endeared her to anyone.

Sam saved her from having to think up a reply by tapping her on the shoulder and gesturing to the computer. "You've got an e-mail right? You seem like someone who lives out of their computer half the time." She nodded at the orange laptop Marcie hadn't let out of her hands since she'd arrived at the squat, messy house, or really any time since she'd left home.

Supposing she might as well give them a way to contact her (what could it hurt?) she shrugged. "Oh, yeah, it's Batholithian at-"

"Bathawhat?" Sam asked, her eyebrows knitting together. "You should probably be the one to type it."

Marcie did, her fingers clattering the url together in under a second. The coffee made her hands a bit jittery, but her e-mail was easy enough. She tucked her laptop under her arm and looked at her hosts. "That's it then? I really ought to be going."

She left the house to a chorus of "Be safe"'s and "Good luck!"'s with her laptop tucked safely under her arm. Caffeine giving a boost to her steps, she navigated back towards her hiding place near the coffee shop.

To her horror, a couple people were investigating the alley. Marcie recognized the other runner boy from earlier, and it seemed he'd brought another friend. She froze, searching for some way to salvage the situation. Who knew what the boys would do if they found her luggage, or damaged the superhelium bladders by accident. 

"Dude, it totally fake. Probably another costume of the werewolf's." The new boy said, strutting towards the terribly hidden manticore costume.

It moved. Marcie squinted through her yellow glasses in disbelief.

"Russ," the runner boy squeaked. "Did you see that?"

"It was just the wind, ya moron."

A low growl emanated from the manticore, and the boys looked at each other, and then back at the manticore which shifted again, sloughing off the trash Marcie has used in an attempt to hide the beast. Marcie squinted through her yellow glasses in disbelief.

The growl turned into a vicious snarl punctuated by a loud, inhuman and wordless shout.

Russ and the other boy ran as though the devil himself dogged their tail. Marcie had half a mind to join them. Instead, she took a deep breath and stepped into the alley. Her manticore certainly wasn't a real monster, and possession couldn't be right, seeing as how ghosts do not exist.

The noise came again, though Marcie realized that the cry was not a shout at all, but a _bark_. The manticore shifted again, but she held her ground, one hand clutching her computer tight and the other balled into a fist. A dog bounded out from behind the beast, its tail wagging and wavy brown ears flopping. Marcie crouched down, and held out her hand. 

With a 'wuff' of hello, the dog trotted over to Marcie to be petted. "Good dog. Thanks, lil guy. I'm lucky you were here sniffing around in the garbage, that's for sure." It was a collie, or a spaniard or something. Marcie never was good with dog breeds. 

Not wanting to delay more, Marcie gave the dog a good scratch behind the ears, and moved on to ready herself for flight. The dog lingered in the alleyway, watching her stuff her laptop safely back into her suit case, and her suitcase into the disguise.

She clambered in after the case, and let loose a blast of the superhelium. To Marcie's delight, the costume remained unharmed.

The dog watched, unperturbed as she drifted upwards. Her wings unfurled once she broke free of the walls, the wind catching the thick membranes and sweeping her and the costume into the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm dead tired so I haven't checked for grammar or weird double uses of words or anything, but my friends wanted me to get the chapter out sooner than later, and I'm pretty sure they're the only ones reading this, so. Yeah!


	4. Chapter 4

Marcie followed the road for the better part of an hour, starting to regret her decision to have quite so much caffeine. As much as she tried to focus on how positively gorgeous and lovely the scenery was, she'd invariably slip down a mental bunny trail that led her straight back to the questions plaguing her conscience. 

 

She let out a heavy sigh, more of a mix between a whine and a scream of frustration muffled by the huge manticore mask. The voice changer shifted the sound to a terrifying snarl. Even if the combined weight of herself and the costume equalled approximately zero, the air inside still felt thick and heavy. Reaching her arms up, Marcie pried off the headpiece to let the fresh air replace the musty, old sweat smell.

Marcie considered the cool, piney scent of the forest a vast improvement over her own recycled air, despite her usual antipathy towards the Great Outdoors. She closed her eyes and let the breeze from her momentum wash over her. 

Unfortunately, when operating the arms, the wings hung limp and useless, and she could only drift where the wind told her to. When the breeze seemed to stop, she realized she'd slowed to the speed of the air around her.

With another grunt of frustration, she shoved the head back into place, plugging up her air once more. Knowing she needed to break, at least for a couple of hours, she angled the manticore's wings into a steady decent. It didn't take long before her claws raked the uppermost leaves and needles of the forest as she zipped past them, quickly regaining her former speed.

A clearing whizzed by below and in her haste to land, Marcie flipped her wings out to force a stop. She felt more than heard one of her wings snapping a bit too forcefully backwards.

She shouted a raw, wordless expression of surprise and fear as the sudden torque from her wings sent her spinning into the trees. In the seconds before impact, she wondered briefly if she had actually made a sound, as there would be nobody to have heard it. If a tree falls in the forest, right?

* * *

"Hey, guys, check this out." Velma turned the screen of the laptop to face the other teens in the van. 

 

"What's a Comicon?" Daphne asked, her face screwing up in disapproval. "It sounds super nerdy."

Shaggy leaned over Daphne's shoulder, and his eyes seemed to bug out. "That comic convention is only, like, the largest nerdy get together in the country!"

Velma cast an equally disapproving look at Daphne, then pointed to one of the event on the guest list. "It looks like that Baylor Hawtner actor is going to be there."

"I am _so_  over him, you know that." Daphne shuddered holding her hands out from her like she needed to wash them. "I can't believe I ever went out with that... that _crybaby_."

"Remember, he's not the Crybaby Clown in this universe. Baylor Hawtner was never a bad guy, and he probably never even came to Crystal Cove," Velma reminded them, turning the screen back to her to look for more potentially luring panels.

Daphne frowned slightly. "I forgot about that. He definitely seemed nice enough for a while. Maybe being in Crystal Cove changed him somehow."

"I don't want to go," Fred said defiantly, though he kept his eyes on the road.

Daphne fought to not roll her eyes. "Fred, I'm not going to leave you for him. The Dusk series is so last year anyway. The Immortal Tools is the hot stuff now!"

"It looks like there's a fan panel for that too, Daphne," Velma said, scrolling. "Oh, Fred, there's one about traps too: Identifying Traps for Dummies. It might be a bit below someone of your caliber, but I'm sure they would love to have insight from a professional trapper like yourself."

She looked slyly over at Fred, who seemed to be doing his best to hide his enthusiasm. Hook, line, and sinker. "How far away is it?"

"Only a few hours. If you take the next exit up there, we'll be heading straight for it."

A bit too suddenly, the Mystery Machine crossed two empty lanes and barreled around the exit ramp. Somehow, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby wound up tangled together on one side of the van.

"And this is why you wear a seatbelt." Velma muttered, her face half squished by a large, hairy dog butt.

* * *

Marcie gazed wide-eyed up the metal fist aimed at her face. Her gut twisted in fear and she wanted to throw up. Being brave was a lot easier when she just had to act. It was easier when she had the upper hand. She pushed herself backwards and glanced towards the gate. The others were gone.

 

The gate blurred and a sob caught in her throat. Her eyes darted back to the gun in her face. They'd left her like she'd told them to. What brave part of her remained was thankful they'd be alright and that they'd be able to continue. The scared part wished they'd have stayed and helped. 

A cold, hard stone stopped her retreat; jagged bits of the rock poked into her back painfully. She'd never really been a part of them. They'd have risked everything to save on of their own. Fear drowned out her bitterness though; she was going to die here at the claws of an evil parrot. 

The gun clicked into position, and she could feel the evil bird's eyes glaring down at her. Velma at least, had protested. Marcie could still hear the way her voice cracked when she spoke up.

She drew in a shaky breath. The world needed Velma a whole lot more than Marcie did.  Velma was smart, and she'd known that even if she'd needed to be reminded. Marcie knew it too, even if she selfishly wished Velma would have stayed with her to the very end.

Marcie snapped her eyes shut as the first gunshot ripped through the air.

She flinched, waiting for the pain as more followed in rapid succession. 

BRAKABRAKABARAKABRAKBRABKARABRARKABARARK

The only pain she could feel was the rocks jamming into her back.

BRAKABARKABRAKABARKA BARK BARK BARK

Blearily, Marcie opened her eyes. Dappled yellow light streamed up through a floor of green leaves. Tree trunks reached towards the brown, mossy sky. A small, floppy eared dog stood against a trunk, barking down at her.

BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK

Marcie twisted around, and the world seemed to reassert itself around her. She hung upside down from the ruins of the manticore costume, stuck in a tree that had apparently slowed her landing. 

"Eurgh..." Marcie groaned, then grabbed at her throat. "What's going on?" She asked herself in a voice an octave or two too high. (She never was a musical person.)

The dog, at least, had stopped it's incessant barking. Not that the creepy staring was any better. She could hear a faint hissing noise too, likely coming from the air sacs in what remained of the manticore.

"What, are you waiting for me to fall so you can eat me alive?" Marcie snapped, as she extracted her feet from the outfit and wriggled her way to stand on the branch below her. The words came out much less grouchy than she felt, due to the helium pitching her voice up. Her legs hurt more than she expected them too, and one gave out beneath her. She caught herself before she fell completely out of the tree by grabbing the handle to her suitcase, which happened to be caught firmly between two branches.

Once she caught her balance, she pried her case out from where it was lodged and began her decent. 

With one final, "Oomph," of effort (now pitched to match her normal voice) she landed heavily on the ground, suitcase in her lap. The strange dream already had slipped from her mind.

First things first, she extracted her laptop, terrified it might have broken in the crash.

The dog approached her as she booted up her PC, and gingerly licked at her knee. Marcie yelped and grabbed her knee to hide it from the little dog. "You are trying to eat me, aren't you?" She pulled her now rather bloody hand away and stared at the sticky redness. She'd scraped up her knee pretty bad. The last time her knees looked like this was when she was six and her mother and father taught her how to ride a bike.

Marcie glared at the dog, more of an excuse to push those memories aside than out of anger at the dog who had backed up and sat down to stare at her, head tilted to one side. Confusion quickly replaced her irritation as she recognized the animal. "You're the dog from the alley, aren't you? How did you..." She trailed off as the machine in her lap played the introduction notes. One thing, at least, seemed be unharmed. 

Unfortunately there was no wifi signal, not that she expected there to be one.

She looked over at the dog again, and it thumped its tail on the ground, tilting its head back the other way. "So are you a stray or something?" she asked.

The dog thumped its tail on the ground again.

Marcie reached over and scooped the dog up, flipping it over before it could protest. "Girlie dog, alright then. I'll call you Amber." She let the dog struggle out of her grasp.

It snarled and barked suddenly, and Marcie jumped back away from the snapping teeth. Was it rabid?

A heavy tank of compressed superhelium smashed down into the ground right where she'd been standing.

Oh.

Marcie looked up, preparing to dodge whatever else decided now would be a good time to fall, but nothing happened. 

"Thanks," Marcie murmured to the dog. She tugged the air tank out of the dent it made in the soft earth, and pulled it over to her suitcase. Attaching it to the case required a bit of creativity and a belt from one of the outfits she'd packed.

As she worked, Marcie kept glancing over at the dog, who now seemed to be busy doing a very dog-like job of licking herself. She sure didn't seem like anything special, but this was now the second time the dog had dome something. 

"You've got a bit of an attitude for a dumb dog," Marcie said, setting the verified-as-not-destroyed laptop on top of the suitcase. She adjusted her socks, flinching slightly as the left sock pressed down on her bleeding knee.

Marcie looked up again at the shredded Manticore disguise and felt her anger rising. How could she be so stupid? Gliding around in a straight line was nothing compared to the acrobatic flight she'd attempted, and it was only luck that saved her from meeting the same fate as Icarus.2 With one final tug of the bindings, she sat back against a tree.

Amber sat down next to her and turned a beseeching gaze onto Marcie.

"What do you want from me, hmm? I don't have food." Marcie reached over and scratched the dog behind its ears. Amber leaned into the scratchings, her foot thumping on the ground. Marcie smiled a bit, though she wasn't quite feeling it. "You followed me all the way into the forest, you crazy dog. Have you never seen a manticore before?"

The dog gave a "Wuff!" as though in reply.

"Yeah. Some disguise I had, huh?" Marcie stopped petting the dog and wrapped her arms around her knees to pull them in close. She rested her chin on her undamaged knee and sighed. "What was I thinking, Amber? I don't even think they want to be tracked down. Velma still hasn't replied to the e-mails I sent the day she disappeared."

Voicing her insecurities only seemed to make them more real. A cloud slid across the sun and the forest darkened around her. "They're fine. I thought they were in danger, you know, but they're just riding around in Fred's van solving mysteries or something."

Amber licked at her arm and Marcie patted her head, pushing the muzzle away. "You don't care, you're a dog. You just got some absurd idea in your head that I'm going to feed you, but unless you're a hunting dog who also knows how to cook, I don't have any food for me or for you."

Despite the warning she gave the dog, Marcie appreciated its company. "Fun fact, I was the valedictorian of my class. I'm supposed to be one of the smart ones, but here I am literally flying across the country to who knows where to rescue someone who might not even want rescuing." Her words sounded matter-of-fact, but she still felt sick to her stomach. "I should just go home, assuming I don't die out here."

The animal's teeth barred slightly, and before Marcie could pull away, the dog nipped her on the arm.

She shouted and swatted the dog away, then checked her arm for blood. "You're reminding me why I don't much care for animals." Thankfully, it hadn't broken her skin. "Rabies shots are pretty horrible, but I hear they test the animal for rabies by cutting open their brains."

Her words actually seemed to have and effect that time. The dog's eyes widened and it shook it's head, the long ears flopping. Marcie laughed at the reaction. She could almost swear the beast knew what she was saying.

She wiped the blood from her busted knee onto her skirt. Though both were red, it still left a dark, wet spot where it smeared. All things considered, she'd been lucky in the crash. It could have killed her, and she would never have been found.

Guilt twisted in Marcie's stomach at the thought of what her father would find out. Would she have been proclaimed missing and gone forever like those milk carton kids? The e-mail from him still sat in her inbox, unread. She supposed reading the e-mail would give her an excuse not to have to move from where she sat just yet, and even though she hadn't broken anything, she could feel the aching already in her back.

She slid her computer back onto her lap and opened up her e-mail.

> _No subject_
> 
> _Dear Marcie,_
> 
> _I had a feeling you would leave if I gave you the chance.    I wish you hadn't, and I'd say that you're going to be in big trouble when you get back, young missy, but... Marcie, I just want you to come home, safe and sound._
> 
> _When you left to go to the supermarket, if that's even what you did, I took the liberty of packing soem some...     Drat, why does the delete not work?      Anyway, I packed you some cookies and a couple water bottles.     Stay hydrated and don't forget to eat!_
> 
> _With love,_
> 
> _Dad_

> _P.S. One of our park mascots noticed his costume was missing this morning.     Was that your doing?     None of the locks were damaged.      I can't imagine why you would want that old thing though._

 

Marcie wiped the tears out of her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat. She couldn't do anything more than draft a message until she had internet, but she hit reply anyway.

 

> _Re: No subject_

> _Hey dad, I'm sorry for running out on you. I really couldn't lose any more time and I wasn't tired in the least. I would have stayed up all night worrying about her. About them all, really._
> 
> _I got word about them when I stopped for a break at a small town that I can't even remember the name of. According to everyone there, they were perfectly fine and even stopped to help them out with some monster trouble the town was having._

> _By the time this actually sends, I'm sure at least one of them will have called home. As far as I can tell, they are all okay._
> 
> _Thanks for the snacks. I hadn't noticed them yet, and hopefully they didn't get squished in my last rough landing._ _It was me that took the manticore costume. I've been using my superhelium to travel, and I needed something with wings so I wasn't stranded with the wind._

Marcie hesitated for a moment, wondering whether she ought to elaborate on the state of the mascot costume or not.

> _It didn't work as well as I'd wanted it to, so i think I'm going to continue on foot. I have enough cash on hand to pay the bus fair to get back home._

It wasn't until she read what she'd just written that she fully understood that was exactly what she planned to do. 

This time, she couldn't fight the tears. She snapped the computer shut on her lap and curled around it, crying softly. Maybe 'Mister E' was just some random guy who had agreed to help them out. It was obviously enough a lame pseudonym.

She'd been duped by some romantic idea of being Velma's knight in shining armor and a deep conspiracy that she'd fabricated around the whole thing. Denial had pushed her ahead after the small town, but she couldn't ignore the facts any longer.

Amber lay down next to Marcie and rested her head on her shoes, though if Marcie noticed, she didn't react. All she felt she could do in that moment was cry. She was tired, alone, scared, and above all, heartbroken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm terribly sorry how long this all took. I got stuck twice, lucky me. I'm planning on bringing Mystery Inc. into a few chapters, but I really dislike writing (and reading) Scooby's dialogue. Listening to it is fine, Scooby has been one of my favorites since I was little, but seeing his words in writing just looks /wrong/ to me. I'll figure something out though.
> 
> Also, sorry I'm not sorry this chapter is a little bit sad.


	5. Chapter 5

"You know, I find it a little strange none of our parents have called us," Daphne remarked while staring blankly out the window. Sand, sand, a couple road signs, sand, some scrubby looking treed, and yet more sand blurred past as the Mystery Machine chugged along the highway towards the convention.

Velma, thankful for the reprieve from 'I Spy' with Shaggy and Scooby, propped her elbows up on the back of the seat. "It hasn't been that long yet, has it?" 

"Actually it's been, like, five days now," Shaggy corrected, after counting on his fingers.

Daphne turned around, shaking her head. "No, this is our fourth day. We left Sunday morning. I'm just surprised my phone isn't ringing off the hook. I mean, I know my dad was always disappointed in me, but it's not like he didn't care." She hesitated, suddenly doubtful. "Right?"

"Ruff course he ruved ryou!" Scooby insisted, giving Daphne a less-than-welcome surprise lick on the cheek.

"Agh, Scooby!" Daphne leaned forward as far as her seat belt would allow. "That's gross! But... thanks."

Velma put a hand on her chin in thought. "You know, there was something that crossed my mind when we set out... The reason why we haven't heard anything from our parents may be that they don't even know that we're gone!"

"WHAT?" the rest of the gang asked in unison, the van swerving slightly as Fred momentarily lost control of the vehicle.

"How could they not know that we're gone?" Daphne asked, her violet eyes wide with shock.

"It's quite simple, actually! When we destroyed the Evil Entity, the whole universe reshaped itself around the Entity's absence. Our timeline merged with another, alternate timeline. A timeline that exists _without_ the Evil Entity! We remember everything from the old timeline because that's where we are still from." Velma said, as though it explained anything.

"I don't understand, like, how does that explain why nobody knows we left? Didn't you, like, already say all that before?" Shaggy interjected.

Velma turned to him, and waved her hand impatiently, "Don't you see? When the universe reformed, it made a new Mystery Incorporated too! That's why your parents thought you were a chef, or why Fred was so popular on his soccer team, and Daphne was supposed to babysit the Mayor's kids." She gestured to each of them in turn. 

"You mean there's doubles of us still back at home?" Daphne asked, a horrified expression on her face

"It's the only thing that makes sense." Velma said, shrugging. "I mean, it hardly seemed like a coincidence that we all appeared together under the sign, and like you said, Daphne. Nobody has contacted us in the last four and a half days."

The others nodded slowly, seeing the logic in her words. Silence fell as the group considered the implications, or tried to imagine just what their universe clones might be like.

After a few minutes, Fred spoke up again. "Hey, Velma? You never told us how your life was different."

"Oh, I didn't?" Velma asked breezily. "My parents were pretty much the same old boring Mom and Dad."

"Nothing changed for you?" Daphne asked, surprised.

Velma shrugged forcefully. "I hung out a bit with Marcie that afternoon. Turns out we were... never rivals in this universe. I'd hoped maybe she could help me figure out what was going on and she kind of did."

"Huh," Fred said, "It's amazing how many little things like that changed without the Evil Entity around to mess it all up."

"I think what's more surprising is how little changed."

"What roo ryou mean, Raphne?" 

"Well, if the Evil Entity was what lured the conquistadores to Crystal Cove in the first place, you'd think there wouldn't be a Crystal Cove, wouldn't you?" Daphne answered. 

"You have a good point there, but if you think about what I said - how our timeline merged with another - you'd understand why things aren't like that. Naturally the one our universe would merge with is the timeline that it is most similar to. This universe must have been the closest match to our own that didn't have the Evil Entity!" 

"You sure know a lot about alternate timelines, Velma." Fred said as he steered the vehicle onto the exit lane, following the instructions on the last billboard they'd passed.

-CONVENTION CENTER NEXT EXIT-

-Turn left-

Velma adjusted her glasses sagely. "It's all theoretical at this point. I'll be able to prove I'm right when we get to Miskatonic and I can ask Mr. Ellison."

* * *

Marcie took one last glance up at the ruined manticore and stood, muttering to herself. "I suppose there's no point in wallowing in feelings here. I need to find a way back home, where I will probably be locked up in my room for two months. That should give me all the time I need."

She dried her eyes, grabbed her things, and stopped to look back for the dog. "Come on, Amber. I'm heading back the way I came."

It had wandered off a little ways, and seemed to be watching her expectantly. The dog barked at her in reply and looked pointedly in the direction it started in.

Marcie had read somewhere that animals had good instinct when it came to direction, and in all honesty she had no idea where she was. The animal had stuck with her the whole time, after all, without getting so much as a scrap of food. Hopefully Amber was smart enough to find her the nearest road. 

After what felt like an hour, and after suffering at least three branches to the face, two thorny bushes, five poison ivy scares, and twice that number of spider webs stuck in her face and hair (eleven, she grumbled as she carefully peeled yet another sticky web from her face), she finally felt pavement under her feet. 

She stopped mid step and looked around, bewildered for a moment and hardly believing her eyes. Sure enough, however, she stood on the shoulder of a two-lane highway cutting through the forest. 

"Thanks, Amber!" Marcie crouched down and held her hand out for the little dog. Amber trotted up to her, quite pleased with herself, and allowed Marcie to scratch behind her ear.

The moment between them didn't last long though, as the dog's floppy ears twitched and it wriggled away from Marcie with a small bark. It took Marcie a couple seconds, but she heard the low rumble of a vehicle too, and deciding to take the risk she put her thumb out and waited in the shoulder.

The car - a red sedan as far as she could tell - whooshed by, flipping up her skirt and blowing her already messy hair into her face. "Rude!" she yelled after it, knowing it would do no good.

It would be getting dark in the next couple hours, and the last thing she wanted to do out here in the middle of nowhere was to camp, and the roads out here didn't seem to see much traffic or maintenance. With a sigh, she picked a direction that seemed hopeful (the dog didn't seem interested in assisting this time) and started off.

Another twenty minutes passed before the dog wuffed again. Marcie caught the engine sound faster this time, and stuck her thumb out, hoping for a good Samaritan this time around.

When the vehicle came into view, Marcie was surprised by how large it was. A van by the look of it!

For a moment, she was able to convince herself that it was the van that went missing with her friends and by some miracle happened to drive this road, but as it came closer, she realized just how large it was. Definitely bigger than a van.

So distracted by the bus, Marcie didn't notice as the dog bounded into the middle of the lane until it started barking.

She dropped her thumb and shouted, "Amber! No, get off the road! You'll get run over." It ignored her, and kept barking. "Here. Heel Amber! Get over here, com'ere. Com'ere girl." Whistling didn't work either, and by the time she gave up on that, the bus was too close to try to grab the dog. 

It turned tail and ran along the road, but the bus was so much faster.

Marcie waved frantically for the bus to stop, shouting at the top of her lungs.

The shuttle flew past her, tires screeching all the while.

And then, in an instant, it was all over. Marcie wrinkled her nose at the acrid stench of burning rubber, but ran towards the stopped bus anyway, afraid at what she might find.

The door opened as she neared, and a boy a couple years older than her with what looked like neon blue hair and cat ears stuck his head out, and waved. "You alright?"

Marcie stopped a couple feet away, and dropped wordlessly to the ground, checking under the bus with her heart in her throat.

"Your dog ran off into the woods, I think. The driver says he didn't hit it."

She looked back up at the boy, and realized that the cat ears were attached to a felt hat he wore. "Oh. Thanks," she managed, her voice breathy with relief and exertion" 

"What are you doing out here?" A fat, middle aged man leaned into view from the driver's seat. His expression seemed more concerned, even if his voice was stern.

"I... Was following the dog." She knew it was a lame explanation the moment she said it, but she wasn't about to spill out her life's story to these strangers. Particularly not one wearing a cat-ear fleece hat in this weather. 

Someone pushed past the boy, hopping down the bus steps two at a time. Her hair seemed impossibly styled, and unnaturally blonde for her skin tone, and her outfit looked like a gothic schoolgirl skirt and blouse. "Homigosh are you alright? Are you lost? Why were you in the middle of the road?"

"Ally, let her breathe," the older man said. "Get back in the van or so help me, I will leave you here."

Ally turned around, a horrified expression on her face for just a moment. When she saw the boy laughing, and the bus driver smiling, she stuck her tongue out. "Hey, it's not often you almost run over some poor girl on the side of the road. I'm trained in CPR, so I could have saved her life."

Someone else inside the bus shouted up, "So that's what it was! You just wanted to sweep her off her feet like a damsel in distress!" Friendly laughter followed. 

Marcie felt her cheeks flush bright red at the laughter, and she looked up the road, unsure how she ought to react.

"Hey, don't mind her," the boy said. "I'm Nate, and she's just kidding around."

"Totally kidding," Ally agreed, then put a hand up to her cheek and with a wink, she stage-whispered, "unless you want a kiss." Marcie blushed even harder in response, her mind buzzing.

Was she supposed to laugh too? Were they making fun of her? How could she even know?

Nate tugged lightly at her hair, and the whole mass slipped askew. "Ally, stop it. You can pick up girls at the con, not on the side of the road."

"Ayie!" Ally yelped, and pushed the wig back in place, leaving a few strands of brown hair wisping out from under it. "You're going to make me have to redo it!"

"That's what you get for putting your whole cosplay on the day before the convention even starts!" Another person in the bus called out.

Ally jumped up on the first step and looked in with a pout, "Says the one who tried to test their makeup on the bus!" The bus erupted in friendly laughter again.

Marcie looked nervously up at the windows, and saw at least a dozen people watching her. She waved nervously and a number of them waved back. 

A couple other kids from the bus filed out onto the road, apparently using this as a chance to stretch their legs. The group seemed to range from about fifteen years old to early twenties, with the exception of the driver.

One of the boys crouched down and called into the forest, "Here doggie doggie."

"What's its name?" someone asked Marcie. She wasn't entirely sure whether they were a girl or a boy, even by the voice. They were shorter than her, and a bit on the heavy side. 

"I call her Amber, but I'm not sure if she really responds to it," Marcie admitted.

Someone behind Marcie whistled "Amber! Comere girl!" She half turned to correct them that no, the dog wasn't really named Amber, but the call had already been picked up by five others. hunting the underbrush.

"Wait, where are my manners. What's _your_ name? I'm Kit." The person held out their hand for Marcie to shake, and she turned back to them. Dammit, their name wasn't enough of a clue either. 

Marcie took it, hoping the smile she gave looked more polite than constipated. "I'm Marcie, ah... I'm sorry for stopping the bus."

By that point, nearly the whole bus had spilled out onto the road and nearby forest, and at least half of the nearly twenty people were calling for Amber.

Kit laughed and shook their head, "Nah, no worries. Honestly, I think we all need the break, yanno? We've been stuck on the bus for like five hours already today, no breaks, and we've got about that much more left to go."

"All for some convention?" Marcie asked, dubiously. 

"Not just any convention," Ally said, butting in. She plopped her arm down over Kit's shoulders and moved her other hand in front of her like she was brushing aside curtains. "It's _the_  con for anyone who is anyone."

"Anyone who's anyone who is a huge nerd," Kit agreed with a wry smile, poking a finger into Ally's stomach.

Ally yelped and backed away, covering her stomach with her hands. She seemed to have abandoned her wig, though her bushy brown hair remained mostly pinned up by bobby pins.

"Sounds interesting," Marcie said, though she still wasn't sure she liked the idea of hanging out with hundreds of people like the ones on the bus. Sure they seemed nice enough, but they were rather intense… The only way Marcie could see herself at a convention was huddled in a corner on her laptop, instead of doing whatever it was people normally did. If normal was even a thing that applied in a situation like this.

Just then, a car whizzed by the bus, honking loudly as it passed. Everyone scattered off the road, with shouts of "Oi!"  and "What the heck?"

"They really shouldn't be out there. It's not safe on this road," Marcie said, watching them worriedly.

"What about your dog?" Ally asked, her eyes wide. "It almost got ran over by the bus, what if another car comes along and gets it?"

"Amber isn't really my dog. She just kinda... found me in the woods." Whoops, that wasn't really what Marcie wanted to say. Her fears were confirmed when Ally and Kit both gave her a look of almost parental worry. 

"Well, if she was stray then, I'm sure she'll manage. She probably belongs to the park ranger," the bus driver said, having overheard the conversation. "A'ight, everyone aboard! We've got miles to go before we can sleep."

Marcie turned to Kit, a little unsure. "Hey, where are we, exactly?"

Kit's eyes widened even more, "Just how lost are you? You're in Fishlake National Forest." 

Marcie bit her tongue to stop herself from asking for clarification. She'd never so much as heard of Fishlake National Park, and admitting to these people that she wasn't even entirely sure what state they'd found her in would be too painful. 

"Mr. Thomas, can we keep her?" Ally asked the driver, her voice pleading.

"The dog's long gone by now. All that yelling and tramping about the forest prolly scared 'er off."

Ally giggled, shaking her head. "No, I mean Mmm-" She paused mid sentence and looked to Kit for help.

"Marcie," Kit supplied.

"-mmmarcie here. _I knew that._ We can't just leave her!"

"I was gonna offer her a ride, so relax and get back in the bus. I'd like to check into the hotel sometime before midnight, you hear me? Hey, Nate, get everyone back on the bus and do a head count." 

Marcie watched as the boy in the cat ear hat rounded up the others. Kit and Ally both reentered the bus, leaving Marcie with a helpless shrug. 

"Everyone's back in, Mr. Thomas," Nate said after triple-checking the head count.

"Good, good. You sit down too." He waited for the boy to do as he said before turning back to Marcie. "We're headed to Denver, a'ight?" Marcie's face must have registered her disappointment because the bus driver held up his hand. "Now, looks to me like you're heading in the other direction, but before you give up for total know that we'll be heading through Grand Junction in about four hours or so."

Marcie stood up a bit straighter, her mood more hopeful. "If I'm not mistaken, that sounds like a train station town."

"Rightly so," Mr. Thomas said with a nod. "I'd be happier than a fig on a fiddle to drop you off there on your way."

"Ah, that's not..." Marcie faltered at his misuse of the idiom, wanting to correct him, but forcing herself to swallow her pride instead. "You know what, never mind. Thank you." She pulled her suitcase into the bus after her.

The other kids in the bus all looked to her, and a couple of them waved. Nearly all the seats were taken, but Kit waved to her from the window seat next to an empty space about midway back.

Thankful she wouldn't have to sit on the floor, she took the offered place, shoving her bag underneath the seat as well as it could fit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually had 95% of this done only a few days after I posted the last chapter, but I got caught up in things and could not for the life of me figure out how to end it. Which. It still ends pretty lamely. But at least I'm posting something.
> 
> I'm going to start focusing a little more on Mystery Inc. as the story goes on. About half the reason I've been avoiding this is because I haven't the faintest idea how to go about writing dialogue for Scooby.
> 
> One thing I struggle with a bit too, I think, is Marcie's characterization. I try to stick to what she was like in Universe A, but what happened in that world was so much stranger and more fantastical than this Universe B that it's kind of hard to translate without losing a bit of self. (And then I'm also hoping to have her develop some over the course of the fic, and that's a whole other beastie.)


	6. Chapter 6

Marcie wasn't really sure how it had happened, but at some point she found herself regaling her life story to an entire bus full of attentive teens. _Hadn’t she promised herself just minutes ago that she wouldn’t?_ She finished with a gesture around her and a helpless shrug. "And then you guys found me."

“So, like... after all that, you're just going to give up and go back home?" Ally asked, her voice full of concern.

"It's not like that!" Taking off her glasses, Marcie rubbed at her eyes to force the tears not to fall. "Mister E is right. I shoulda turned back when I heard they were doing fine. Father's going to be so angry with me, he must be so worried. I haven't so much as called home!"

“But what if something bad happened to Velma?

“What if Mister E did something bad to them?”

“Seriously cut it out, you guys.” Kit came to her rescue with one hand resting on her shoulders, the other shooing the others back to their seats. “Story time is over, give the girl some space, okay?”

Marcie sniffed a little, and hoped she could pass it off as allergies. “She’s got her other friends in her mystery gang with her anyway. She couldn’t stop talking about them that day.” _She kept going on about Shrodinger’s Cat, and how strange things the normal things were around town..._

Kit’s hand withdrew from her shoulder, and out came a smartphone. “Woah, wait, mystery _gang_? What about Mystery _Incorporated_?” 

“What, like they’re some sort of mystery solving company?” Marcie’s face crinkled up with doubt. “Sure they made a few quarters solving mysteries when they were younger, but I don’t see how that has anything to do with it." 

“Not really…” Kit seems to be looking something up on their phone. “Nate was telling me about them earlier… I didn’t get the chance to look them up.”

Nate heard his name from the front of the bus despite the general chatter and made his way back, barely managing not to fall into one of the seats (and onto some of the other students) when the bus rounded a corner. “ _Did someone say Mystery Incorporated?”_ His grin stretched from ear to ear, and it looked like he was about to launch into exposition.

"They’re just a bunch of blogs,” Ally complained, leaning over the seat. 

Nate puffed up a little. “Blogs that got really big on the internet yesterday when none other than Teen Celebrity Heartthrob,  _Baylor Hawtner_ tweeted about them. Apparently they’ve been on a mystery solving road trip across the US. And sit down correctly! You’re gonna get hurt if the bus hits a bump."

“Am not!”

“Are too!"

“What? Let me see!” Marcie inched closer to Kit, and tried to look at what was on their phone.

“Get a room, you two!” Kit snapped, then handed the phone to Marcie.

Ally and Nate stopped fighting and looked at Kit. “Ew,” they said in unison, and Marcie had to wonder if it was rehearsed.

She didn’t wonder about them for long though, since she now had _proof;_ actual online evidence that Velma was alright… That she’d left of her own accord, and everything was fine. Marcie flipped through the entries. So many, despite it reaching back only four days. For the most part, each of them wrote one before and after every mystery, (even the _dog_  apparently,) and they’d been busy. Most of the blog posts belonged to Fred Jones’ who seemed to use the blog like it was a twitter account. She had to stop herself from visibly rolling her eyes at that. That boy was as electronically illiterate as always!

The website had Velma’s fingerprints all over it too, from the images used, to the obvious application of one of Velma’s favorite layouts. Marcie wished she could see it on a laptop… She’d shown Velma how to hide easter eggs in the code once when they were redesigning their school’s website together just last year.

_Click! **Flash~**_

A picture? Marcie looked up in a bit of a panic to see Ally with her phone out, snapping a picture. “H-hey! What was that for?”

“This Velma of yours is a lucky girl!” Ally ducked back into her seat to show the person next to her. “Wish I could find someone who would smile at me like that, and she’s just looking at her GF's _blog_.”

Marcie sank down in the seat, and pushed Kit’s phone back into their hands. “Didn’t stop her from leaving without a word though.” Her words brought an awkward silence to her row, though Ally still tittered to her seat-mate in hushed tones.

“They’ve mentioned a couple times that they’re on the hunt for mysteries.” Nate said after a minute. “They’re looking for places that have always been shrouded in mysteries. Maybe they didn’t want to get their loved ones involved too much in case it got dangerous.”

“Nate has a point. Didn’t you say they left without telling _anyone?_ Not even their parents, right?”

“But she _knows_ I’ve always wanted to be a part of something bigger, something _important_.” So why would she leave without a word? No matter what Marcie did, the answer seemed just out of reach. If V was there with her, Marcie knew the clues would just fall into place, and make sense with just a simple explanation… But she’s _not_ because that’s the problem and- Marcie closed her eyes and pressed her palms to her temples to stop the throbbing. “Can we stop talking about this? I’m catching a train when we make it to Grand Junction, and it’d take a miracle to change my mind.”

It didn’t take long for exhaustion to set in. Once everyone backed off, the shaking and constant noise of the bus drowned out all extraneous thoughts. Marcie's head lolled and she soon utilized Kit’s shoulder as a pillow. Her mouth rested a little ajar and a trail of drool dripped out.

“Dang,” Ally mouthed to Kit when she checked back just minutes later to see Marcie completely zonked out. She raised her voice to a whisper. “She looks like she’s been through a lot…" 

“She smells like it too,” Kit whispered back, wearing a slightly pained smile. “I wasn’t sure if I believed that she’d been traveling by _flying mascot costume_ , but…” they waved a hand in front of their nose.

“Her story is so crazy, it’s gotta be true! Nobody would make up something as ridiculous as that." 

“Yeah, but you’d think with all the help they’ve been giving the police on their journey, that someone would have caught on that they’re the missing kids from Crystal Cove, wouldn’t you?”

Ally fell silent, contemplating that, then shrugged helplessly. “I don’t think she’s lying though. Nobody’s that good at acting.”

“I don’t either. I have a feeling there’s something else going on here. A bigger mystery for her to solve somehow… Do you really think she wants to give up and go home? After all that, to leave her questions unanswered, do you really think someone like her could do that?”

“No way!”

“Shh!”

“Right, right.” Their conversation quieted and they both looked to Marcie, though she was dead asleep and didn’t react in the slightest. 

* * *

“She hasn’t replied to any of my e-mails…”

Daphne frowned down at Velma over the front seat of the van, her eyebrows creasing. “You e-mailed Hot-Dog Water? I thought you said we were all clones or something, and shouldn’t contact home!”

Velma pulled her legs up to her chest, grateful the boys were out getting pizza, even if that meant they’d be lucky if even a single pepperoni made it back to the van. It gave her a chance to talk to Daphne one-on-one for the first time since they’d hit the road. “It’s _Marcie._ And if only that _were_  true. When we transferred from our universe to this one, I’m sure now that the paradox it caused completely replaced us."

“Well that’s a relief,” Daphne said with a laugh.

Velma made an indignant noise. “How do you figure that?”

“Well I certainly don’t want to there to be another _me_  running around!” 

“But what about the person you replaced? Who were they? Don’t you think people miss them?” Velma spoke emphatically, gesturing towards the rear of the Mystery Machine, as though that could sum up all the hundreds of miles they’d already traveled and the previous versions of them were there, still going about their business. "They lived different lives than us. _Better_  lives, for the most part.”

“Oh.” Daphne’s voice came out like the wumph people get when they’ve been punched in the gut. “You mean like how my parents are okay with Fred and I getting together?”

“And how Shaggy was president of the Chef’s Club, and won a bunch of awards,” Velma added with a pained nod.

“And how you and Hot-Do… uh, Marcie, were friends instead of rivals,” Daphne finished, seeming to understand. Her expression was very serious now, and she had one arm hanging onto the headrest like she would drown otherwise. 

Velma bit her lip, and pulled her knees closer... “Yeah. Like that.” She’d hoped Daphne would be too caught up in the new revelation to catch her slight pause, but social cues were what Daphne lived and breathed. Where Velma had her mysteries and science, Daphne knew people.

“Velma… What aren’t you telling me?” Daphne pushed her red hair back behind her shoulder and hunted for the lever next to the seat.

“I… I’m honestly not sure.” Velma couldn’t make the right words come out, not when she was so doubtful herself about the true circumstances. “It’s all hypothesis… conjecture. I don’t have any hard evidence to-“

“ _Velma._ ” Daphne’s voice cut through her babbling, punctuated by a click the fwomp as the front seat collapsed. After a bit of maneuvering, Daphne joined Velma in the back of the van, taking a seat close to her on the trunk floor. “Take a deep breath, and slow down. The boys are getting pizza. They’re not going to be back any time soon, so there’s no need to rush."

Velma knew she was right, and smiled a little shakily. “Yeah, it’ll take Fred a while to roll Shaggy and Scooby back to the car once they’ve had their fill.” She took a deep breath, and relaxed so she wasn’t hugging herself so much. “I’ve been thinking about that afternoon before we left, you know?”

Daphne tilted her head, and nodded, encouraging Velma to continue with a curious, “mmhm?” sound.

“Well, she helped me out a lot, then. We’d only worked together a few times in our universe, but the way she was able to bounce ideas off of me, and me off of her…” Velma’s gaze slid out of focus, though it looked like she was staring at a mysterious stain on the floor of the van. “It was so natural, being friends with her!”

Velma was too engrossed in verbally puzzling it all through to notice the small smile creeping in on Daphne’s face. 

“She said we’d won the Tri-State Olympiad of Science together for _three_  years running! I don’t remember it, but at the same time, it’s so easy to picture. She’s really smart, you know? Honestly, I think the main thing that stopped her from beating me in the Olympiad in our universe was that she was never able to afford the supplies she needed since her dad’s amusement park was always running in the red.”

“You wish you could remember all those times working with her, huh?” Daphne guessed. 

“Exactly!” Velma agreed, not picking up on the sparkles dancing in Daphne’s eyes. “We must have been such a great team together… I wish now, that I hadn’t spent all those years making fun of her instead. She could have been part of Mystery Incorporated. She could have traveled with us, and solved the mystery of Crystal Cove together!”

Daphne shook her head. “I doubt it. You know how the Mystery groups in the past were always made. Four humans and their animal. It was as good as destiny you two couldn’t be together in our universe.”

Velma’s eyes turned as big as saucers, magnified even more by her glasses. “Who said anything about being together?”

“Oh, don’t give me that look, Velma! You think I can’t recognize a crush when I see one?” Daphne made a big show of rolling her eyes. “Puh-leeze!" 

With a chagrined expression, Velma fiddled with the hem of her skirt. “Fine. So that hypothesis I mentioned earlier? I think we may have been dating in this universe.”

That seemed to interest Daphne, and she leaned in a little. “You think it was mutual?”

“I don’t know for sure!” Velma spoke hastily, waving her hand as though to dismiss the idea. “I’ve just been thinking a lot about how things are so different in this universe… but also how they stayed the _same,_  you know?"

It was Daphne’s turn to go bug-eyed. “Wait, wait, wait, wait! So you and her… even in our universe? No _wonder_ she helped us out so much at the end!”

“W-What?! No! Nothing like that!” Velma shook her head firmly, though she could feel her cheeks warming up. “She was just doing what she had to to save the world! Just like all of us were.” Sure they’d been close, but they were just working together. Even though they worked together really well. They were just hunting down pieces of the planespheric discs. Even with how much fun it had been, teaching Marcie how to solve mysteries with Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby. Marcie had just been working for Mister E. the whole time. Even though Velma hadn’t discovered that until later, after she’d had to explain to Marcie that she didn’t belong in their group.

Velma looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Earth to Velma, Earth to Velma!” Daphne’s voice was teasing, but gentle. “I wasn’t around for when Hot Dog Wate-"

“Marcie! H-her name is Marcie...”

“Right. Well, my point is, I wasn’t around for her taking my place, I just remember how super awkward she was when I came back. She only ever really talked to you, and Fred told me how much time you spent training her." 

“I… we just needed someone. Fred’s ridiculously complicated traps always used all five of us, and without you they fell apart. She only stuck around me because we knew each other better!"

Daphne sighed and shook her head. “Alright, alright. Fine. So she really was just a replacement. I hear the boys coming back now anyway. Should we talk about this later?”

“Later. Sure.” Velma secretly hoped the subject would be forgotten. None of this made any logical sense. “Daphne, promise not to tell the boys about any of this, alright?"

“I promise!” Despite how she’d been playful about it before, she didn’t have a trace of teasing in her voice now, for which Velma was grateful. She couldn’t pursue the matter any more, one way or another, since in that moment the back door to the van burst open. Daphne scrambled back to her spot in the front seat, making sure to claim it as a bloated Shaggy and Scooby tottered into the van. “Oh, and Velma,” Daphne added, as Fred joined her in the front seat row, “maybe if you can’t get through by e-mail, you could ask our fans for help.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Wow, it's been forever since the last chapter. I swear I'm going to finish this thing though!! In fact, I'm refusing to post any of my other writings here until I complete this fic. I can't believe so many people have read it too. Just yesterday I got another Kudos on it, and seriously I thought I was one of two or three people who were a fan of this pairing. Then I looked at the recent fics for this pairing and there was a fic updated as recently as last month?? Who are you people and can we be friends..? (I still need to read the fic though. I have such little time these days...)

The snow drifted around peacefully, dousing the whole world in silence. Marcie couldn’t feel the cold, or the wind, despite the Russian weather. Whether this was due to the technologically advanced, endothermic body suit she wore, or to the pure exhilaration at what they were about to do, Marcie wasn’t sure.

“Eagle one, we’re approaching the museum now.” The voice was garbled by the voice morpher but Marcie knew who spoke, and couldn’t help but smile. Despite the danger of the situation they were in, Velma treated it like a spy mission, insisting on codenames and hand signals she made up on the spot.

The gruff voice came in reply, clear through the headset. “I don’t need a minute by minute status update. Just get in and get out with the goods.” Their employer picked the two of them for this mission for their intelligence and cunning. Or at least, that’s what he’d said he’d chosen them for. Surely someone sending two American high school girls to the other side of the planet in order to break into a Russian museum and steal a priceless artifact couldn’t have any more devious reasons for it.

“Roger that, Eagle one.” Velma closed the com-link, and looked over towards Marcie. “You ready for this?"

“You bet I am, V.” Whether this guy had picked them for their smarts, or for the fact that Marcie had a criminal history and Velma was recently abandoned by all her friends but not by her penchant for mystery solving, she was ready. To prove it, she fired the grappling hook to the top of the cathedral. The hook locked in on the top, and she tugged twice to confirm it wasn’t loose. “Do you want the honors?” 

* * *

“Hey, hey kiddo.”

“Hey... kid? Uh… What’s her name?”

“Marcie,” Nate supplied helpfully from the seat catty-corner to the driver.

“Hey, Marcie?” The bus driver’s voice carried back to where Kit sat, staring out the window at the train yard.

Ally’s head popped up from over the seat to check on the two people in the seat behind her. A quick once over told her everything she needed to know. “She’s still sound asleep!”

“Not anymore,” Kit corrected dryly as Marcie stirred and sat up, clearly startled into wakefulness by Ally’s ringing announcement.

“Mnnh?” Marcie asked eloquently as she looked around in a daze. The snow was gone, and so was Velma. Just a dream... A string of drool still connected her to Kit’s shoulder, but she wiped it away as soon as she noticed, while also hoping that Kit didn’t.

The bus driver made his way towards the middle of the bus, and he leaned on the back of Ally’s seat.

“Hey stowaway,” Kit teased lightly, “we’re here at the station.”

Marcie fixed her computer glasses, rubbing her eyes underneath them. Sleep fogged her senses and it took her a few seconds to run back through what she’d just been asked. “We’re already in Grand Junction?” Any answer she could have been given was made unnecessary by a train blaring its horn as it chugged by.

“Miss Marcie, are you ready to head home?” The driver asked kindly. “Do you have enough to get a ticket?"

“I’ll have the whole train ride to prepare. I already know Father’s already going to kill me.” She yawned hugely. “Or worse, take away my chemistry set… but yes, I have money.”

“Agh, how could you?” Ally whined dramatically. Kit, Marcie, and the bus driver stared at her. “Marcie made me yawn,” she explained, abashed. From her expression, Marcie assumed she hadn’t expected to have drawn that much attention. Ally pulled herself together though, and continued more seriously, “Marse... Do you really want to go home after everything you've done trying to find Velma?" 

Marcie couldn’t quite meet Ally’s eyes. “There’s nothing else I can do,” Marcie stated, trying as much to assure herself that this was the right decision as she was her new acquaintances. "I’m in enough hot water as-is, and it’s a lost cause at this point. She left with _them_  and is clearly having the time of her life.” She stood up, pulling on the back of the seat in front of her, since her legs didn’t seem capable of doing the work on their own. More than just the drowsiness of her nap chased her, the weight of her failure, and the rejection that had finally set in pressed in on her from every side. It was all she could do to stand up straight, hold her head high, and not cry in front of a bus full of teenagers. “Thank you so much for your help. All of you."

“We hardly did anything, though,” Kit objected. 

Before Kit could say more, Marcie held up a hand. “No… No, you took me in, and more importantly, helped me get word of V and the others. Without you guys, I’d still think they were kidnapped, if I’d even gotten out of that forest alive.” If she looked around, she’d break. At least with the tears blurring her vision, she didn’t have to look at anyone directly. Even so, she could feel their eyes on her, hanging onto her every word. The only time she’d ever held this much attention before were the times that her and Velma had been awarded the top prize at the Science Olympiad… and maybe that time she ‘accidentally' blew up the bunsen burner in the middle of the instructional lecture and almost set off the fire alarm.

_“Nate, oh my god! Don’t be obsessing over your phone right now!”_ The angry whisper broke the awkward silence Marcie fell into, and as every eye in the bus turned away from her, she relaxed, and let herself dry her eyes. 

Ally lunged at Nate and tried to snatch his phone away, and the two collapsed together onto the laps of a couple classmates. Marcie used the commotion as a cover to exit the bus without any more fuss. Kit escorted her out with an offer to help her unpack bags from the undercarriage. 

She looked out at the station — it actually wasn’t Grand Junction proper, just a small shuttle dropoff a few miles away. Turns out traffic around a busy train station can be pretty awful at any point of the day, with hundred-car freight trains whirring by every few minutes. The shuttle site itself looked like it was around fifty years old, and the small parking lot had more craters than the moon. How Marcie hadn’t woken up as the bus rattled its way into the lot would have amazed her, if not for the dull ache in her chest.

Another train breezed past on a closer set of rails than the last, and Marcie could feel the breeze from it. Somehow over the rattling of the train, Kit noticed someone banging on the window of the bus, and tapped Marcie on the shoulder to let her know. She squinted, trying to see through the glare. She could just barely make out Nate’s cat-eared silhouette waving frantically at her and holding up his phone.

Ally, the apparent loser of the impromptu wrestling match, appeared at the door of the bus, her eyes wide and hair wild. “I think there’s been a blog update!” 

“I’ve made up my mind, I’m going home!”

“No you have to lis-“ Ally started, but Nate finally pulled the window down and shouted to Marcie himself.

Another train horn blared over his words, but Marcie knew just enough lip-reading for her stomach to drop.

_“They’re coming to the convention too."_

Ally bounded down the stairs and wrapped Marcie in a huge hug. “Can you believe it? You’ll get to see her!"

Nate and some other students spilled out of the bus, chattering excitedly, their words barely audible over the train whirring by.

When she finally released Marcie, she was beaming. “It’s probably on their way to… wherever it is that they’re going!”

Marcie’s mind felt like it was overloading. She wanted to say it changed everything, but really it just confirmed her own self doubt. If they were going to a _convention_  there was nothing wrong with them. It didn’t seem like they heard what she said, so she shook her head and backed away from Ally and Nate. “Tell V hi for me."

“You’re still not going!?” Nate asked. “But we can take you straight to them!"

She shook her head. “I left on a rescue mission. Not to stalk my girlfriend to a convention halfway across the country.” The train moved past, and suddenly the noise level dropped. Marcie didn’t adjust her volume fast enough. “Well… probably _ex-_ girlfriend at this point.” 

The rest of the background noise died entirely as the excited conversations ground to a halt. This was worse than that time she forgot her lines during the school production of Hamlet. At least then, there were only two people in the audience she really cared about, her father and Velma. (And later, Velma had taken her out for icecream.) How in the world had it come to this? Why should she care what these twenty people thought of her? 

“Marcie, wait… You should read the update on Velma’s blog.”

She put her hand up as though to block his words. “You told me what she said already. Her and her _friends_  are going to that convention.” 

“That was Fred’s blog, actually. Velma has her own post about it, and... I think she’s talking about you."

Her hand fell to her side with a voiceless, “Oh.” She felt as deflated as her old manticore costume.

Nate pressed his phone into Marcie’s stomach, and she had no choice but to take it in her hands. “Please, just read through it."

Reluctantly, she dropped her eyes to the phone. 

> _Hey Mystery fans,_

> _It’s a beautiful day here on the road to the con. I’m probably just as excited to meet all of you as you are to meet us, and thank you for all the wonderful fan mail. We’re hardly able to keep up with all of it, even during the long car rides, so please don’t feel bad if it takes a while to get back to you._

> _All that said, I can’t help but feel something is missing in all of this. When Mystery Incorporated departed from home just a few days ago, we left in a hurry. Due to some extenuating circumstances, we didn’t say anything to friends or family. We haven’t heard anything in the news about our disappearance though, so it sounds like our Sponsor took care of that for us._

Marcie’s brain skittered to a halt in the middle of the post, and to comprehend it, she reread that sentence a few times over. Then she looked up at Nate, her eyebrows ducking under the rims of her glasses. “Sponsor? What is she talking about?” She had a sinking feeling she already knew.

“Sometimes the blog posts mention him! He’s the one who sent them out on their journey in the first place, and he tells them where all the mysteries are.” Nate answered like he’s reciting trivia, like it’s a fun television show he’s memorized, rather than the convoluted reality Marcie had to face.

His answer only concreted in her mind that the ‘sponsor' could only be Mr. E from that video she got in an e-mail telling her not to pursue Velma and the others. She forced her attention back to the blog post.

> _Despite our gratitude that our Sponsor has cleaned things up, I do miss home sometimes. I miss my parents and my one friend who couldn’t come along. I wish I could talk to her about everything that’s happened to us recently._ _I know there’s no way I could explain to my parents, and the rest of the gang is in a similar conundrum._ _  
> _

> _Even you, our avid readers, would think our story a step too fantastical. Who in their right minds could believe us? I know for sure that I would deny the plausibility of our story if I hadn’t experienced it first hand. It’s probably for the best that my friend is ignoring my e-mails, but if any of you are from Crystal Cove and know who I’m talking about, can you let her know that I’m sorry for leaving like I did?_

Marcie felt a hand on her shoulder, guiding her somewhere, but she was too focused on what implications the blog post gave to do anything but obey. A good thing she did, too, because her legs gave out just as the backs of her knees hit the bottom step of the bus and she sat down heavily, still staring at the tiny screen.

“What is she reading? I can’t find the post!” Someone shouted from inside the bus. After that, the bus broke into a flurry of questions. 

“It’s been taken down,” Nate confirmed from Ally’s phone. “Marcie, can I see my phone real quick?"

Marcie let him take it, and ran a hand through her hair. “Am I allowed to change my mind now?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm super excited for the next chapter, actually! It's going to feature ridiculous knockoff TV Shows and Other Things, hopefully keeping with the spirit of Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated, as well as some Actual Mystery Solving.
> 
> Hopefully this one won't take another 10 months to finish.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the start of the first fic I've written in a while, so I might be a tad rusty. Talk about rarepair too! The ending of the last episode made me so happy, and then really, really sad for Marcie, and I feel like her story can't end there, not like that.


End file.
